Helmut Hofer and Christine Lietz
In Austria, the apprenticeship system provides all citizens, including the less able among them, with a training option. Based on social security data, this article examines…
Abstract
In Austria, the apprenticeship system provides all citizens, including the less able among them, with a training option. Based on social security data, this article examines earnings and the stability of the occupational career of young workers with an apprenticeship diploma. As control groups, workers with a full‐time secondary school education and workers who did not receive any further education after completing their compulsory education were used. One of the main findings is that workers with an apprenticeship diploma are much better off than those without further education. The article finds the following ranking with respect to education: high‐school graduates, ex‐apprentices and unskilled workers, with more pronounced differences between ex‐apprentices and unskilled workers.
Details
Keywords
Rita Asplund and Wiemer Salverda
This special issue of the International Journal of Manpower aims to make a contribution to broadening our limited understanding of the role and impact of employer‐provided…
Abstract
This special issue of the International Journal of Manpower aims to make a contribution to broadening our limited understanding of the role and impact of employer‐provided training for low‐skilled service sector workers. It brings together seven of the papers that were presented at the international conference “Adapting Education and Training for the Enhancement of Low‐Skilled Jobs” held at Helsinki in May 2002. The papers are situated at the crossroads where three different strands of research and policymaking meet: the training of the low skilled, the system of vocational training and the role of training for the service sector. The contributions cover an interesting variety of European countries: Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Sweden, Spain and the UK, with diverging levels of low‐skilled (un)employment, vocational training and service‐sector employment.
Details
Keywords
Anja Gerhardts, Helmut Mucha and Dirk Höfer
Disinfecting laundry processes are essential to avoid contamination of laundering machines and linen during commercial laundry reprocessing in the health care sector. Recently a…
Abstract
Purpose
Disinfecting laundry processes are essential to avoid contamination of laundering machines and linen during commercial laundry reprocessing in the health care sector. Recently a bacteriophage‐charged bioindicator has been developed using MS2 as surrogate virus for testing of low‐temperature disinfecting laundry processing on efficacy against viruses related to practice. This paper therefore aims to investigate application of MS2‐bioindicators in chemothermal processes under practical conditions (phase 2/step 2) and in practice (phase 3).
Design/methodology/approach
The experimental design was developed and modified according to the German Society for Hygiene and Microbiology (DGHM) Standard Methods for Testing Chemical Disinfection Processes. Tests under practical conditions were performed at 60°C and 70°C. Additional tests in tunnel washers were carried out at 60°C and 70°C. In all experiments validated disinfecting laundry processes, recommended for bactericidal and virucidal performance (categories A and B), were applied.
Findings
The results show a temperature‐dependent gradual efficacy against the test virus MS2 up to reduction values of more than 8 log10‐steps. Therefore MS2‐bioindicators prove to be suitable as a tool to determine the performance of disinfection procedures against viruses in practice.
Originality/value
Phage‐charged bioindicators may be a tool to provide further insights into the reliability of antiviral laundry processes for health care quality management and for infection control.
Details
Keywords
Binshan Lin and Helmut Schneider
Attempts a contribution to the area of health care quality by presenting a framework for thinking about, and improving our understanding of, measuring quality in health care. To…
Abstract
Attempts a contribution to the area of health care quality by presenting a framework for thinking about, and improving our understanding of, measuring quality in health care. To achieve this object, addresses the multidimensionality of quality management in health care. Delineates the dimensions of quality measurements in health care, focusing on both output and process issues. Stresses the need for the measures to relate to patient requirements and shows how these measurements can be driven back into care services as a means of facilitating quality improvement in the health care environment. Concludes by discussing the implications of the framework for managers and by providing direction for future research within the context of the framework.
Details
Keywords
To study the nature of social entrepreneurship from the viewpoint of activities associated with the perception of opportunities to create social value and the creation of social…
Abstract
Purpose
To study the nature of social entrepreneurship from the viewpoint of activities associated with the perception of opportunities to create social value and the creation of social purpose organizations to pursue them.
Design/methodology/approach
The ways in which social enterprises adopt financially sustainable strategies to pursue social aims and address a wide a range of social problems, such as unemployment and inequalities in access to health and social care services, are discussed. Applies the results of existing research to summarize the size of the social enterprise sector in the UK, Europe and US. Proposes eight research themes for social enterprises research and endorses the need for researchers to build on current knowledge and to work together to generate a theory and produce valid, reliable and comparable data capable of being shared by researchers, policy makers and those with an interest in social entrepreneurship.
Findings
The eight research themes identified by the study comprise: defining the scope of social entrepreneurship; the environmental context; opportunity recognition and innovation; modes of organization; resource acquisition; opportunity exploitation; performance measurement; and training education and learning about social entrepreneurship.
Originality/value
Facilitates research into social entrepreneurship in the UK by overcoming the handicaps caused by the lack of standard and universally acceptable definitions of social enterprise, social entrepreneur and social entrepreneurship as well as the absence of a national register of social enterprises.
Details
Keywords
Johannes Bauer, Dagmar Festner, Hans Gruber, Christian Harteis and Helmut Heid
Epistemological beliefs are fundamental assumptions about the nature of knowledge and learning. Research in university contexts has shown that they affect the ways and results of…
Abstract
Epistemological beliefs are fundamental assumptions about the nature of knowledge and learning. Research in university contexts has shown that they affect the ways and results of student learning. This article transfers the concept of epistemological beliefs on workplace learning. The basic assumption is that employees' epistemological beliefs affect whether they perceive their workplace as learning environments. A study was conducted in which the interrelation of employees' epistemological beliefs with their appraisal of the workplace as supportive for learning was investigated. Additionally, the role of professional hierarchical levels concerning work‐related epistemological beliefs was analyzed. No significant interrelation between epistemological beliefs and workplace appraisal was found. Groups from different professional hierarchical levels did not differ in their workplace appraisal. Consequences about future research about the role of epistemological for workplace learning are discussed.
Details
Keywords
The paper analyses the challenges of globalization for exchange rate and monetary policy.
Abstract
Purpose
The paper analyses the challenges of globalization for exchange rate and monetary policy.
Design/methodology/approach
It first deals with the implications of globalization for the choice of an appropriate exchange rate regime. Then it discusses different strategic aspects of monetary policy in the light of globalization. Finally, it examines the effect of globalization on inflation and the implications of this for the focus on monetary policy.
Findings
The main challenge of globalization for exchange rate policy refers to the choice of an appropriate exchange rate regime. Exchange rate policy is constrained by the financial instability tendency effect of globalization insofar as intermediate exchange rate regimes tend to be very unstable. However, globalization may also create the desire to change the focus of monetary policy. Globalization is sometimes argued to reduce inflationary pressures and therefore to “ease” the job of central banks. However, there are caveats with this conclusion or arguments that are discussed in this paper.
Originality/value
The paper gives an innovative overview of the various challenges of globalization for monetary policy.